Capgras

By Charles Ayanleke
© 2009

Her major challenge would be how to leave home on a Friday night without arousing suspicion. She could alternatively arrange for a phony birthday party at a friends’. She chose the latter option. Several of her friends would be happy to play her alibi. She decided to use Grace. She was best equipped to keep a secret. The others were just basket mouths.

Her parents swallowed the Grace birthday party plan more easily than she had thought. Grace lived on the Island, so they wouldn’t expect her back too quickly. Her mum even suggested that she sleep over if it got too dark to return home. Mrs. Williams was scared of all the stories of abduction in the news.

There were evil men out there who captured young unsuspecting victims at bus stops and market places for the purpose of their moneymaking voodoo ritual. Often times, the remains of unfortunate female victims were found dumped on the roadside after their breasts had been shaved off for those rituals. Male genitals were also popular ingredients. Victims often bled to death after the crude surgery usually done at a ritualist’s shrine.

The following Friday, Aduke left home in the late afternoon on a “drop”. She had never been on the mainland by herself. Her school was located inside FESTAC as was their every other convenience ranging from grocery stores to farmer’s market and now, more recently their church, thanks to Joe and his fellow missionaries.
Father O’Connor had done a good job as the interim pioneering parish priest at the first ever Catholic Church inside FESTAC. Initial attendance exceeded expectations and encouraged the diocese to make more resources available to the budding parish.

As the cab pulled into the driveway of the impressive hotel, Aduke could not help but feel like a fish out of water. She had never done anything quite this crazy before. Even her escapades with the girls in high school where they scaled the fence to attend house parties nearby could not compare to this daring adventure. She had a bad feeling about this already.

She handed the cabbie a Naira bill and told him to forget the change. He was overjoyed.
“Madam you wan make I wait you for the day?”, he muttered in his well-polished pidgin English.
“No, that won’t be necessary” she replied. She wanted as few witnesses as possible for this trip that threatened to go wrong at any number of turns.

She tried to make her way through the lobby as inconspicuously as she possibly could. That was asking for the impossible. It was unlikely that a girl with her looks would be able to walk more than a few steps in any part of Lagos without a million eyes feasting on every single appendage of her female anatomy. It was just the way Nigerian men were cloned, they simply can’t help themselves.

She stopped in front of the reception desk in the magnificent hotel lobby. The floor was hundred percent marble and the walls were obviously painted in several layers to an exquisite finish. No blemish was visible. Every piece of furniture showed evidence of recent waxing and had gold-plated edges.

“Hello, I have an appointment with Mr. McCain in room 604. He is expecting me”.
The receptionist initially wore a trademark hospitable smile apparently expecting she was a guest about to check in. But as soon as Aduke finished stating her mission, the receptionist adopted a less charitable demeanor. She had seen too many whores and gold-digging schoolgirls prey on the endless expatriates lodging at the hotel that her reaction was standard. It was always a mixture of envy and disdain.

She knew the girls were making a fortune off these men. Her position as receptionist here barred her from fraternizing with her customers. She stood the risk of losing her job. Moreover, she did not have the looks of these young girls. Many of them had voluptuous bodies any man would die for and on the right side of twenty, unlike her thirty-something year old self.

“Far right, elevator to sixth and take a left”, she said almost irritably.
“Thank you”.
Aduke walked briskly across the hotel lobby, ignoring the lustful stares of half a dozen pairs of male eyes on the way to the elevators. She wondered what she was getting herself into. What if this man was a human trafficker, or a sex slave racketeer? What if this whole Catholic missionary thing was part of a grand plan of deceit? Well, she was in too deep now to have second thoughts.

She also had the matter of her own curiosity to deal with. She would readily admit to herself that she wanted to find out what it might be like to be with a white man. All her love experiences so far were with black men, Nigerian men. She wanted to see what the women she saw in the movies felt like when a Caucasian man showered romantic gestures on them. Plus Joe was not just any white man. He had captured her imagination from the very first moment she set her eyes on him.

As she pushed the doorbell the second time, she took a very deep breath and held her breath momentarily.
He opened the door and flashed her that warm, disarming smile of his.
“Hey, Aduke. You made it, please come in.”
“Maybe you should start learning how to pronounce the name. It is Ah-duh-keh”, she spelt out the syllables.
“Eh-duh-ki”, he murdered it again.
Aduke simply threw her arms in the air in a gesture of resignation.
“So, how was the trip from FESTAC? Hope it wasn’t too much trouble”, he said, while waving her to sit on the padded cushioned sofa next to the TV.
“No, not at all. This is my country, remember?”
“Oh, I forgot.”
“Well, I just felt you might need reminding once in a while!”
“You definitely talk a lot more than your appearance suggests.”
“What, you expected a deaf and dumb?”
“Ah, not at all. As a matter of fact, it makes you more endearing.”
“So let’s cut the chase here. A missionary escapes from his hellhole in Ireland. He finds some sanctuary in Africa where he can lose his inhibitions and screw as many black girls as he secretly dreamt about prior to leaving his miserable religious life and then returns to resume that life after a thorough confession of his sins to a Reverend Father. Is that the script?”

“Wow. Where did that come from? There is no script, Aduke. Can’t two adults just sit down over a drink and get to know each other platonically.”
“Well, I am barely an adult. I just turned nineteen last week.”
“Congratulations! I am twenty two.”
“A twenty-two year old missionary? Don’t you guys have better things to do than this Church stuff?”
“Well, Aduke, nothing is more honorable than to serve the lord in the days of your youth”
“What, so this will end up being a preaching session, will it? That’s even worse.”
“I apologize. Well, would you want to visit the beautiful main bar downstairs?”
“No! It was enough risk making my way up. Someone that knows my parents may be in this hotel, you know.”
“Alright, alright. What would you like to drink? The room minibar has several sodas. You can have your pick.”
“What are you drinking?”
“Irish cream”
“I’d like that too.”
“I apologize. I didn’t know you drank alcohol”.
“Well, you didn’t ask.”

As he poured her drink, he couldn’t avoid looking down the front of her blue blouse that struggled to contain her full breasts. Her cleavage was the center of his attention throughout much of the remainder of the night. She had a dark red mini-skirt under the blouse that appeared to be coming into vogue in Lagos at that time. Her long smooth legs accentuated the brevity of the skirt that also had a slit on the left side, leaving his imagination on overdrive.

“Chief Williams did not freak out when he saws you in this sexy attire?”
“He did not see me. Okay, so you are going to have a problem with my dressing as well then?”
“Not at all, you look beautiful!”
“You know, the images we see on TV of Irish girls comprise of long gypsy gowns and long sleeves with head scarves. Nigerian girls dumped all that a decade ago. We now follow the Americans. Make sure the world does not leave you behind while you are following the Vatican, this is the twentieth century!”
“I’ll surely deliver your message when I return”, he said sarcastically.
She sipped on the Irish cream wine again.
He was a little worried at how much of the wine she was drinking. It was sweet tasting and could be deceptive especially to the inexperienced like her.
“You want to go easy on that”
“Ah, sorry. I know it costs a fortune.”
“Oh no. That’s not it at all. I just don’t want to be accused of drugging you or something.”
“Don’t worry; I’d exonerate you of any wrong doing.”

He moved closer to her. Looking directly into her eyes, he took her right hand and smiled.
“What now?” She asked
“I think I’ve fallen for you, Aduke”
“You certainly don’t take very long to fall for people then.”
“No, I’m dead serious”
“I don’t even know what that means. Listen, you are a foreigner. You are here for only a brief period. Pretty soon, you will disappear into thin air. I may be young, but I am not stupid. If you’re looking for a quick shag, you got the wrong girl. Next door to you, on the Kuramo beach, you have multiple whores who’d be glad to see to your every sexual need.”
“I don’t need a whore, Aduke. I think I’m in love with you.”

She had been resisting the urge to look into his eyes. But as she looked up, their gazes locked and she suddenly felt weak at the knees. He was still holding her hand. As she tried looking away, he pulled her towards him, his other arm around her shoulder now. She did not even resist or protest. She knew when the moment arrived, she would be helpless. It was not something she particularly didn’t want. She decided to just soak in the novelty of the moment. She watched as his very white right hand unhooked her bra and gently caressed her chocolate colored breasts. This was an extremely uncharted territory for her.

As he traced his finger downward towards her hips, she could feel his warm breath blow heavier against her left cheek and neck. The moment she sank into the extremely comfortable bed in the five-star hotel room, she suddenly stopped feeling his masculine weight on top of her, as they both became weightless in the strange world of passion.

They both lay there for several minutes without saying a word.
Then she spoke first.
“You are really working hard at winning souls in Africa, Joe.”
“Don’t be ridiculous now.”
“So has anything changed?”
“I’m still in love with you, if that’s what you mean.”

*****************************************************************

They had continued to see each other almost every week. When it was becoming very obvious that Aduke was absent from home for no good reason and her parents started getting suspicious, she stopped making the trip to the mainland and Joe rented one of the flats on 22nd street, just the next street to them. He however tried to lie low as much as possible so Chief and Mrs. Williams didn’t notice their little affair.
It became even easier for Aduke to stay away from home. She began to sneak out at night after her parents had gone to bed.

Then one afternoon, she showed up at Joe’s doorstep.
He was not expecting her. She never came to visit in broad daylight so that they didn’t attract attention to themselves.
Whatever had happened must be urgent.
When she got in, she looked like she hadn’t slept for weeks. She wore no makeup and had bags under her eyelids.

“I’m pregnant, Joe.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really”
“Wow! Great news!”
She thought she was hearing things.
“What do you mean, ‘great news”’, don’t you see how much trouble I’m going to be in?
“Do you mean your parents?”
“More than that. It will mean suspending my College education again. We must find a way of getting rid of the baby.”

Joe flatly refused an abortion. His faith might have taken a hit in the last few weeks with the premarital sex and all, but murder of an innocent unborn baby was one original sin he was not about to commit.
He offered to come out in the open to the Williams and own up to fathering the baby, but Aduke refused that option immediately. She wanted to wait a little, at least until she started showing. That would buy them some more time.

To make matters more dire, it was getting to the time Joe had to return to Ireland. Aduke would have none of it. She wanted closure on what would happen to her and the baby.
Joe then suggested she come with him to Galway. He was prepared to face his future with her and their baby.
She knew that was the lesser of two evil options available to her. The alternative was to have to raise a mixed race baby alone in FESTAC and live her life answering strange questions.
Aduke had no passport, no Visas and had never left Nigeria. Joe talked to some influential parishioners who had contacts at the passport office. Her passport was ready in less than a week.

All hell was let loose when she informed her dad that she was pregnant. He lost it totally when he found out Joe was the baby. He publicly disowned her and swore he never wanted to see her again. She was also not allowed into the house henceforth.
Aduke expected an angry reaction. But even she had not predicted the extent of the punishment her father was imposing on her.

Joe was all she had now.
She moved in with him on 22nd street. He had proposed to her in the midst of all the madness. They had a short, quiet civil wedding on the grounds of the Ikoyi marriage registry. Neither of her parents were there. Joe’s very disappointed co-missionaries also refused to attend.
He obtained a spousal visa for her at the Irish consulate.

*This has been an excerpt from my upcoming novel.